happy halloween!

this year we didn't make it to dupont's infamous drag race, gtown's nightmare on m street or even clarendon ballroom's monster bash.... BUT we did dress up!

can you guess what we are???

a dust bunny and a dirt devil - obvi!
he sure cleans up my act.

george-town.

so it's been awhile... but, believe it or not, i have about 8 or 9 posts in draft mode sitting in my blogger box, unfinished. agggggh. october has just been one of those months. but this, THIS, is breaking news --

celebrity sighting at the office of personnel management. !!!!

yes, dc is definitely the place for georges... the prez, the uptown, the universities (three, count 'em, 3 - gu, gwu, gmu). and now - the one and only, george clooney. yowzers.

a coworker landed upon this goldmine oddity and it just made our day down in drudges of the TRB basement. so here's a glimpse of where i work...with a little eye candy as well.

boss of the moss.

so the long awaited day at the golf course, finally arrived. after arranging a 7:45am carpool pick up friday morning, i hopped in the car prepared as i would ever be, toting along stephen's clubs and fully prepped with the popped collar and all.

upon registering at reston national, i tried my hardest to orient myself to such strange surroundings. with 144 golfers signed up for our corporate event, people were buzzing around, locating their cart out of the 72 lined up to go, warming up at the range or grabbing a quick breakfast at the clubhouse. the air was full of excitement and anticipation - let the games begin!

fortunately my team of 4 was pretty well arranged with various levels of player expertise and talent. and being dubbed the captain of "captain's choice", i had the distinct honor of picking the best shot... which was NEVER mine, but it's all good.

seeking the critique of others, i was pleasantly surprised that i had a beautiful swing (thanks to stephen!), but i needed to work on hitting the ball right... instead of always topping it or digging up huge divots well behind the ball. ooops. i think i was only able to send the ball 70 yards at the farthest, but at least it went straight! hopefully as time goes by, my drive will only improve in distance and power. however i do think it would be in my best interest to take some actual golf lessons!!!

but the good news is that my short game did improve measurably throughout the course of the day. thanks to some super helpful tips from our team's star player and not to mention one of accenture's head government senior execs. ;) after just a few simple pointers from breck, i soon earned the title "boss of the moss" with my well played putts on the green. i was relieved that at least i could contribute success somehow!

overall we came in 8 over par, but i was pleased with my progress. it really couldn't have been a better day - the weather was just gorgeous - no humidity, high 70s and not a cloud in the sky. and reston national is a beautifully manicured course. by 2:30pm everyone wrapped up their rounds, grabbed some free bbq and settled in for the mulligan raffle and awards ceremony. woohoo for free opm hats and working for america totes! lol

by 4:30pm, the place had cleared out, but of course the accenture team just couldn't let a whole keg of yuengling go to waste... besides, everyone knew I-66 was a parking lot full of traffic anyway - why brave it now when in just a few hours it would be clear? so 6 of us made ourselves comfortable in the most conspicuous place possible (between the entrance, driving range and first hole - ha!), while enjoying free cold beer and light-hearted conversation as the sun slowly set on the ultimate casual friday.

reflections on war.

about a week ago, stephen found out his good friend, john mccary, had been asked to join a panel of other veterans for the pre-screening of ken burn's most recent documentary - the war. capturing the sacrificial stories of the greatest generation through the lens of 4 american towns, this documentary series, being 6 years in the making (totaling 15 hours of footage!), held its private screening debut yesterday at the historic lincoln theater. so off we went to see what all the fuss was about....

in short, the excerpt we were shown was very real and very personal and thus very moving - definitely an enticing foretaste of the full documentary. this seven-part series begins on your local pbs channel this next sunday 9/23 and extends into the week. we definitely plan on tivo'ing them all and purchasing copies for our veteran grandfathers.

however the most interesting part of wednesday night was the panel discussion that occurred after the projection reel stopped. with only a panel of 3 - each a veteran representing different wars in our country's recent history - it was fascinating to hear the various perspectives spanning world war ii, vietnam and iraq. hard questions resulted in rare intimate answers that were so revealing to the similarities of war across generations. with about 30 years between each of the panelists, the passing of time proved an enlightening reflection of how the necessity and consequences of wartime service are digested by the soldier individually and the nation collectively. i truly wish there was a transcript of this resulting discussion - it was pretty amazing.

afterwards, we linked up with john and decided to hop a block down on u street to grab dinner at alero. he truly did a phenomenal job portraying his experiences in iraq during such a controversial time. especially when paired up with the other honorable gentlemen on the panel! dinner proved to be just as enjoyable... between john's endearing extended family, noted journalist, jane arraf, who knew john during his days in iraq, and jane's friend, kamala, a very personable foreign service diplomat, it certainly made for quite an interesting evening all in all.

ready or not.

for those unaware, september is national preparedness month...among other things. meaning, it's a time for all of us as a nation to examine our resources and ready our selves for the unexpected disaster - whether natural, chemical, biological or nuclear. hey, you never know.

the fall after stephen and i got married i took it upon myself to get informed and prepare our newly formed rodriguez household for the worst. i spent a couple weeks building up our emergency/survival kit and fine tuning our plan of action. meanwhile stephen thought it would be hilarious to make me watch "the day after" to heighten my over zealous efforts. genius.

however, it's two years have past since i have touched our 4 small plastic containers and food/water supply. but to make sure my comprehensive stock is still up to snuff, i can't think of a better time to re-evaluate my resources and adjust my tactics. now i'm pretty sure we're cool on the food (10 year shelf-life!), but i better check on those spare batteries - oozing acid, yuck. who knows, maybe in the next two years my kit will actually come in handy...god forbid.

so since all this is in the forefront of my mind, i wanted to bring it to yours.

the question is, are you ready?

sssaturday sprints.

-shop-
while stephen braved the long scooter ride down to the south alexandria dmv to *finally* secure his motorcycle license saturday morning, i headed out to leesburg to do some SERIOUS shopping. jk - actually i needed to return a few items, but while i was at the outlets, i just had to look around. and it's a good thing i did. i managed to get out of banana republic with a pencil skirt and super cute red polka dot shell for a mere 83 cents (no joke) thanks to a huge sale, $40 in returns AND a 15% coupon. yipppeeee - i knew stephen couldn't blow his top over that! the purchase would have been historic, but i don't think anything can top the time i scored $90 tweed flats for a penny (i heart dsw). i was feeling so good that i have to admit i did splurge a bit on a smokin' hot pair of paper denim & cloth skinny jeans at saks... hey, saving 70% is still a great deal! fortunately stephen agreed :P

-shower-
after rushing home and changing out, i grabbed my favorite baby shower gift and headed out to vienna to see a long lost (and very pregnant) friend. it's been over 3 years since i have last seen karla after she accepted a job with USAID that took her over to metropolitan cairo. there she met a former egyptian soldier and the predictable played out... first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes ??? in a baby carriage! due to US regs she and her husband had to return to the states for 90 days surrounding the delivery (45 days before and then after) which was great news to all her state-side friends and family! i have to say, she looked amazing - glowing really. unfortunately though i had to leave early after 2 hours and rush home, again, to pick up stephen....

-sarah-
because we had dinner plans in baltimore with our favorite sister! after only being in her digs for 2 weeks now, she was well into being settled and welcoming visitors. so we made the 40 minute drive up 95, looped around the harbor and made our way up to the johns hopkins hospital complex...only after cutting through the ghetto 'hoods that envelop the campus. reminiscent of my penn days? you bet. once sarah jumped in, we headed back down broadway to the harbor for some delish seafood at bo brooks. while sarah and i settled on the legendary maryland crab cakes, stephen tackled 4 large steamed crabs. lucky him, our super resourceful waitress showed him the ropes when it comes to eating these crustaceans... the native baltimore way - no mallet, no knive, just some adventurous fingers needed! i have to say it was quite entertaining, if not exhausting, just watching the process. after dinner we drove around, orienting ourselves to the city and getting lost in federal hill trying to find the strip of so-called yuppie bars. we ended the evening back at jhh at sarah's room in the circa 1970s reed hall - typical residence for many first year med students. uggh. but she did it up right and the tiny space was quite cozy with an a-mazing view of the downtown cityscape to the west. way to go girl.

go on. be a tiger.

i consider myself smart cookie, but there are just some things that have to be taught. this weekend it was golf. having never picked up a club in my life, i allowed myself to be signed up for a golf tournament my client is hosting for a charity fundraiser. paired up on a team with the top partner on my project, i have to admit my hands clam up with sweat with the just the thought of making a royal fool of myself on the green. what was i thinking??!!

with the tourney only 2 weeks away, i knew i better get my butt in gear and practice practice practice. fortunately, my hubby is an amazing teacher in any subject he knows well - which is a many. i brought up the idea of heading out to the range friday evening, and he jumped for joy. finally, our interests aligned! so we packed up his clubs and headed to east potomac park , just south of the jefferson memorial, and home to the oldest mini golf course in the united states. the golf and tennis facilities there are really nice, easily accessible and reasonable in price (shocker).

for $12, we got two buckets of 51 balls and found a spot in the driving range. with painstaking patience, stephen explained the form, stance and swing, step-by-step. as i flubbed one ball after another, he never once got frustrated but continued to pin point my areas of error. elbow straight, lock it. grip loose, wrists cocked. hook your fingers, align your thumbs. knees bent, lean forward. arms straight, follow through. and most importantly... head down, relax; head down, relax; head down, relax. arrrgh - who knew hitting a ball could be so complex?!

after while i started to get the swing of things and i was able to send the balls a-flying - *almost* reaching the reagan national planes taking off and landing over the potomac. yeah, right - although the ascending/descending planes certainly made a pretty backdrop, if you can ignore the roar of the engines. :P as the sun set on our efforts, i was starting to feel more and more relaxed about my upcoming golf event.

we returned this morning to practice that swing once again, except this time we hit from the 2nd level. at this vantage point, you could not only see the washington monument to the right, but the top of the dome of the jefferson as well. very nice. with the sun beating down upon us, i took my hand at swinging solo without stephen's constant critique and affirmation. i think i've got the 9 iron pretty much down, but i definitely need to work my way up to the drivers.... what a frustrating and rewarding game this is! you change one thing in your stance and it can throw everything off.

i still need a few more practice rounds at the range, but at least now i feel confident that i won't completely embarrass myself out at reston national. and the even better news is that we're playing captain's choice, and i'm slotted with the highest handicap, but why do i feel like i have something to prove? it's like i want to turn into tiger overnight...with all the glory of his 60th pga victory! somehow i must have taken accenture's slogan "go on. be a tiger." to heart. afterall, this tournament is technically work-related. ha!

fortunately, my favorite teach keeps me straight - i'm just a beginner to game that haunts all who play. just relax, have fun and you know you'll be coming back for more, he says... oh boy, what have i gotten myself into?!